Various robot hands have been proposed in recent years. In the current situation, however, there have been few proposals related to a robot hand suitable for handling a dining utensil such as a dish or bowl, or a cooking utensil such as a cooking pan or frying pan. For example, in a restaurant or other location where food is prepared, dishes that have leftover food and the like adhering thereto are stacked up and moved periodically to a dishwasher, a sink, or the like for washing. It is extremely difficult to cause a robot hand to hold each of the stacked dishes and move it to a destination such as a dishwasher or a sink.
If an attempt is made to hold a dish by a typical robot hand comprising a pair of holding claws as disclosed by, for example, Patent Document 1, the dish would be slippery due to the deposits on the dish surface, making it impossible to hold the dish securely and increasing the likelihood that the dish will be dropped and damaged during transport. If the holding force were increased in order to hold the dish so as to not drop it, an increased force would be applied and there would be a risk of breaking the dish when the dish is gripped. Meanwhile, it is conceivable to hold the dish without breaking it by using fingers equipped with a tactile sensor, as described in Patent Document 2; in such a case where the tactile sensor touches the leftover food attached to the dish, it is impossible to hold the dish with sufficient holding force, and there is a risk that the dish will be dropped.    [Patent Document 1] JP-A 2006-297514    [Patent Document 2] JP-A 2006-297542